We Have Joyed To Be Forlorn
by nb41
Summary: The continuing adventures of Jane Foster, from the end of Thor: The Dark World to just after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
1. Chapter 1

_Contains spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier_

This Jane-centric and chock full of Jane/Thor and fluff and domesticity, though there's some other things like discussions of magic and Team Science/The Scientists Three as well. The Pepper/Tony is pretty minor.

As far as I've been able to determine, Selvig is a name with Norwegian origins, and I don't recall that the movies ever specifically indicate Erik's heritage, so I went with Norwegian for his background (even though the actor who portrays Erik is Swedish).

As in other things I've done, I continue to roll with the notion that Allspeak lets the MCU Asgardians read other languages, which is what they imply in the first Thor movie. I am, however, using my own take on how Asgardian magic functions in a broader sense, some of which is probably outside canon.

* * *

Having Thor back was overwhelming enough that for a good ten minutes Jane's universe narrowed down to the two of them and the backyard and not much else. During that time their reunion consisted of them kissing, Thor explaining his situation to her in broken sentences, and her concocting schemes to eject everyone else from the house for at least a month. Then Darcy came out and announced there was a tray of tea and snacks in the living room and the guest of honor needed to come inside before one of the neighbors noticed there was an armored, red-caped, hammer-wielding alien getting very cozy with Jane in her backyard. Jane chalked up yet another significant interruption she owed Darcy and led Thor inside.

At Jane's direction Thor set Mjölnir on the coffee table (she had to convince him it wasn't rude at all and that coffee tables were regularly used that way) and sat down on the couch. Erik offered him a mug of tea, which he accepted with thanks and sipped from. It was hard to tell if he liked it or was being polite.

Everyone arranged themselves around him on chairs or the couch, save for Darcy, who remained standing. As she leaned over to grab a slice of cheese off the tray, she said, "So. How long are you staying for?"

Thor set his mug down. "As long as I am welcome, and I am not called to aid in the defense of Midgard or the other Realms."

"Which means, indeterminate, but, 'a while'?"

Thor glanced at Jane, and she took one of his hands in hers and said, "Yes." She might have been imagining it, but she thought Erik gave Thor some sort of Look.

Eyeing Thor's armor, Darcy said, "So you need clothes." Thor looked down at himself, then back up at her as she went on. "And toiletries. Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shaving kit, hairbrush, deodorant..." At everyone's surprised expressions, she explained, "I've taken in my fair share of strays."

Jane was relieved when Thor didn't seem the least bit insulted by the label. "Will these things be costly? If so, perhaps there is something I might be able to trade, or—"

Erik waved a hand, dismissing the idea. "No, no, not necessary. At the very least I can afford to buy you some clothes. Long-term, well, perhaps our friends at SHIELD would be willing to provide you with some sort of stipend."

Jane didn't voice her immediate response (that she wanted SHIELD nowhere in the vicinity of Thor), because Erik was right. Her visiting scholar's meager salary barely fed her and kept her researching; it wasn't going to be nearly enough to support Thor as well in the long run. And unfortunately, there was no way SHIELD would offer money without some sort of benefit to themselves, which meant he'd be called away to help them.

That didn't mean they had to deal with SHIELD today, though. "We can let them come to us," she said. Erik sighed.

"Yes, I suppose they will sooner or later. There's no hurry."

"We should start a betting pool on that," Darcy said.

Ian added, "He'll need an ID."

"We'll _definitely_ need to get that from them," Erik muttered, and folded his arms.

Thor seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable as the conversation progressed. "As long as this is not a great trouble for you."

Jane gripped his hand tightly. "It's not."

* * *

Things proceeded to happen like an avalanche at that point: slowly, almost imperceptibly, and then all at once and so fast Jane could barely keep up. Darcy and Ian went out to get Thor some necessities while he and Erik discussed the Convergence at greater length over more tea and snacks. Jane cursed Erik for not going with Ian and Darcy but took the opportunity to check her email, which had been out of control since the Convergence. By the time she was done, Darcy and Ian had returned, and Erik showed Thor to the guest bedroom so he could go through everything. While Thor showered and dressed they prepped lasagna for dinner; he came back downstairs and into the kitchen just as they were putting the pans into the oven.

He appeared deceptively normal in the light-wash denim jeans, black, cotton, button-down shirt, and dark brown boots Darcy had picked out. He'd also taken out his braids and pulled his hair into a queue. Though Jane didn't think she herself could really ever mistake his profile for anyone else's, the average person would, no doubt, think he was just a big, blond guy with a foreign name. That thought reminded her of New Mexico, and those memories merged with her recent experiences to produce some serious cognitive dissonance.

"Very nice," Darcy said, and Thor responded with a faint smile.

"Thank you. And thank you for obtaining them."

"You just helped Jane and us save the universe, I figure this is the least I can do." Darcy turned to Jane and gestured at Thor as if presenting him. "Whaddya think?"

Jane realized she'd been staring, and said, "Ah, great. Totally incognito."

Thor's smile broadened, and he looked around the kitchen. "Can I help with your preparations?"

What Jane wanted his help with was sitting on the couch, but there was a counter covered with prep cookware that needed attending to, and Darcy had made noises about making dessert.

Jane said, "Help us clean up and get the table set?" and held out a dishtowel.

* * *

Her first round of computation on the Greenwich data wrapped up that evening just after they finished their bowls of bread pudding. She took Erik to the den and sat him in front of her laptop while Darcy and Ian familiarized Thor the TV and its accompanying collection of remotes. Erik flipped through the tables and graphs, pausing now and then to mull them over.

"This is all from the sensors?" he asked.

"Yep. And judging by what everyone's saying on the mailing lists, almost no one else has readings from the focal point. And look at this." She skipped ahead to the last figure. Erik studied it, then stood up and put his hands on his hips.

"Well there's definitely something for you to publish in all of this. Maybe even a handful of papers."

Jane blinked. "Don't you mean for _us_ to publish?" she said, and Erik gave her a chagrined look.

"I'm going to have a little trouble being taken seriously until the footage from Stonehenge is done making the rounds." He leaned down and zoomed in on a three dimensional plot, turning it this way and that. "Sadira Ramachandran has the best cluster for data analysis. She'll want a co-authorship, but if it works out, she can help you get proper space at the campus."

"Erik—"

"Jane." He straightened and put a hand on her shoulder. "Here's a chance for you to prove to everyone that they're wrong and you're right. A real event none of them can deny, and data to back it up."

Unfortunately, he was right. There was also the consideration that it would mean a lot more if Jane did at least one paper—preferably the first one—with someone who hadn't been in her corner from the get-go. That put Erik solidly out of the running. Dr. Ramachandran, on the other hand, was well-respected and also studying gravitational and spacetime phenomena.

"As long as I can make you a co-author at some point," she said. He smiled and gave her a brief hug.

"And you should make Darcy your lab manager." Jane pulled back and raised her eyebrows at him, and he shrugged. "You could do worse than someone who doesn't need an explanation about Thor."

Well, that was certainly true. Jane looked at the spread of plots and diagrams and calculations, and felt truly content for the first time in years. She had data, and she had a plan. Now she just had to put both of them to work.

Darcy was the last one to leave. She murmured, "Good luck," and waggled her eyebrows at Jane, and Jane glared at her and put extra effort into sounding sanguine when she said she'd see her first thing in the morning and shut the door. She might have closed it a little too hard, because Thor asked, "Is everything alright?" as she sat next to him on the couch.

"Never better," Jane said, and dragged him into a kiss. He was no less enthusiastic than he when he'd first stepped out of the Bifröst, and he smelled and felt incredible and she had no in any way over-estimated how good it felt to make out with him, which gave her high hopes for when she eventually managed to get his clothes off. Everything was just right, which was undoubtedly why she was struck with the idea that he was, in fact, not going to stick around. It would be so typical of her life for her to come within reach of things she'd wanted for years only to have them vanish.

She made herself stop kissing him, which earned her a puzzled look. His hand was warm against the back of her neck and he was so gorgeous just staring at her that she had to remind herself she'd wanted to say something. "Sorry, just—you're really staying, right?"

He let out a short breath of what might have been understanding and ran his thumb over her lips. "If you wish."

"I do wish." She leaned in and kissed his neck to reinforce the sentiment and was rewarded with his other hand tightening on her hip.

"Then I will stay," he murmured into her hair. She felt him go still, and he said, "Though, I would not presume to know what would be proper when courting a woman of Midgard."

Jane hmmm'd against his neck. "What's proper is, we do whatever we're both comfortable with."

He relaxed, and when she sat back so she could look at him he smiled in a way that reminded her of New Mexico, when he'd been less reserved in every possible way. "I do not think there will be a great deal I will not be comfortable with where you are concerned." The hand that had been at her neck trailed down along her back. "So I must rely on you to tell me what _you_ are comfortable with."

Jane made a frustrated sound. She had everything she wanted, _except_ tomorrow off.

"I should have kicked them all out the second you showed up," she said.

She had to kiss Thor to stop his laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Jane was up the next morning, Thor had gone for a jog with Ian, swimming with Erik, and helped Darcy make breakfast. She thought it was completely criminal that after a night like they'd just spent he was up and about on only a few hours of sleep, and with enough energy to do not just one thing but several. She tried not to resent it too much as she crawled through the morning routine (truth be told that wasn't difficult when she played back the previous evening in her mind).

As she sat down in her chair at the table and waited for the combined results of her shower and the caffeine to kick in, Darcy said, "So. Erik says you have data."

Thor put a plate of eggs, toast, and sausage in front of her, and Jane mumbled her thanks. He sat next to her and sipped from a mug of coffee. She absently tangled one of her legs with his.

"Yeah, I have a meeting with Dr. Ramachandran today. She's interested in working out a collaboration."

"So, that gets you computer time. Lab space too?"

"Probably not. She doesn't have much for her own people."

Darcy made a face. "Okay. And we need to get on the grant train."

Jane yawned. "Yeah."

"Preferably with me as your lab manager or admin now, so I am making some money."

"Right."

"I've found five from NSF, ESA, and the AAS. Due in two to four weeks depending, so we need to get cracking. There's also two FAR grants we can apply for, but those are further out."

Jane gave serious thought to hiding under the table and muttered, "Okay."

"And don't forget, you're going to ALMA in a few months. And we need to get some preliminary exposure. Maybe a college blog or paper article?"

"Dr. Ramachandran said the same thing."

Darcy plopped into the seat across from Jane with her omelet. "She's right, you should listen to her." Now she turned her attention to Thor. "So, what about you? You spent all morning working out, what's next?"

Thor looked between the two of them. "Ian has offered to show me places in the city today which might be of interest to me."

"And after that?"

"He has said that I will require identification to borrow books from a library, though I may go there to read them as I wish. If you have any here that I could pursue at other times, I would be grateful for it."

Darcy gave him a dubious look. "I never figured you for a reader. It doesn't jive with the whole," she wiggled her fingers at him, "epic warrior thing."

Thor made a low sound. "I am not. But it is something I may do which will not garner attention and still allow me to learn more about Midgard."

Her tone dry, Darcy said, "While keeping you out of our hair."

Thor nodded. "I do not wish to interrupt your work."

"You won't," Jane said in between mouthfuls of eggs. "Since right now a lot of it is waiting for computers to do things and hating grant submission forms."

Thor smiled and focused on coffee. "Just the same."

Jane was going to say something, but Darcy started to harass her about grant details, and Thor stayed quiet for the rest of their meal.

* * *

Breakfast made Jane feel more human, and after the dishes were done she showed Thor to her mother's study, which had journals and books crammed into it ceiling to floor and wall to wall on shelves, bookcases, and almost every other open surface. The heavy, mahogany desk stood out like a barren hillside, with only stationary, a cup of pens, and Jane's laptop.

"Your mother maintains a magnificent collection," Thor said as he gazed around them.

Jane nodded. "Historian. What can you do." She watched him take textbooks out, examine the covers, and then put them back. "Did you do a lot of reading growing up?"

"No. I did what was required," regret flickered in his features, and she had a pretty good idea of who'd done the requiring, "but seldom more." He took down another, a text focusing on North Africa, and this time didn't put it back. "She always said the best way to learn a new realm was to read what they had written about themselves. Even if they wrote untruths, that in and of itself could be revealing."

"Yeah," Jane said, because what else was there to really say. Their eyes met briefly, then he opened the book and began to skim through it. She toyed with the stationary on her mother's desk. "So, your language magic lets you read anything?"

"Yes. Though I cannot use it for writing. Only the most skilled with it may do that."

Jane blinked. "Oh. So you can only write in..."

"My people's language." He glanced at the paper and raised his eyebrows at her. "Would you like me to show you?"

Jane's heart skipped a beat. She shoved the pad of ornately decorated, ivory-colored paper across the desk at him, uncapped a pen, and held it out. "Absolutely."

He set the book aside and took up the pen. After thinking for a moment, he made a handful of test-marks on the corner of the sheet—probably trying to get a feel for how the pen would behave—then started to write.

As she'd expected, he wrote runes, but she was no expert in runology to know if they were the same kind found on Earth. He also seemed to embellish them here and there with a mark or a variance in the baseline, and given how much care he put into doing it she suspected this might be an Asgardian equivalent to cursive handwriting or calligraphy.

When he was done he offered her the pad of paper, and she took it, saying, "Wow." She tried to determine where one word ended and the other began. "What does it say?"

"Jane Foster, Whose Science Defends the Nine Realms."

Jane felt herself blush. "Maybe I should frame it and put it on my office door at the college." Her broom closet door, really, because visiting scholars didn't get 'offices', but at least it would look a little more dignified, and the Linguistics grad students down the hall might get a kick out of it.

"If you wish to do that, I would recommend it be made by a proper scribe. My calligraphy skills are legible, at best."

"Uh huh." Jane pulled the pad against herself. "You wrote it for me, I'm doing whatever I want with it."

He smiled and ducked his head, and after a little fiddling figured out how to recap the pen and set it down. He picked up his chosen book. "May I return this book for another when I am finished?"

"Sure." Jane waved her arms. "Just put them back wherever you get them from. Mom knows where they all go. Not even joking about that, I got a lecture for moving Josephus once. In fact..." She dug around in the desk drawers while Thor watched, and eventually produced a fluorescent orange post-it pad. She pulled one off, stuck it to the book's dust jacket, then tagged the empty place on the shelf with another. "There."

Thor nodded his understanding, and Jane regarded the string of not-quite-runes again. "Hey, did you want to learn to write in English?"

Thor tilted his head, and she clarified, "Actually it's called Latin script, a few languages use it, not just the one I'm speaking now. So it could be pretty useful overall, if you had to write something down for someone else to read."

He seemed to think it over. "Yes, that would be most helpful," he said, and looked more at ease than he had all day.

Jane smiled. "Okay."

* * *

The moment Jane had been dreading all day—where Darcy would pounce on her and demand to know the outcome of the previous night—didn't arrive until they were on their way back from the college some nine hours later.

"Alright, spill," Darcy said. "I want details."

Jane feigned ignorance and kept her attention on her phone. "About what?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Really?"

"I have no idea what you—"

"Okay okay, you don't want to tell me how big or how often or whatever, that's fine, just, at least tell me this much." Jane looked at her. "Was there some kind of weird alien thing?"

Jane groaned. "Please."

"So, what, he was exactly like a human guy?" Jane raised her eyebrows at Darcy. "What? I'm just curious, you only had sex with someone from another planet, how often does _that_ happen."

Jane relented, and hoped she wouldn't regret it. "No, there was no weird alien anything."

"Oh." Darcy actually sounded disappointed. "Hey, does this mean he's your boyfriend?"

"I—" She hadn't even started to think about things like that. Did she need to already? "We haven't had that talk yet."

"Well, fair enough, he's only been back for like, a day." They drove in silence for another few minutes, then Darcy said, "Really, though—how was it?"

Jane put on her best professional, aloof face. "It was incredible."

Darcy had to divide her attention between driving and Jane, but got a few good, long, looks in. "Incredible. That's all you're giving me."

"Magnificent," Jane added, and went back to her phone. Darcy sighed and shook her head.

* * *

Erik came over for dinner and helped them work on the grant submissions while Thor took care of cleanup and then went through some newspapers Erik had brought with him. (As much as he appreciated Jane's mother's collection of history books, he also wanted to learn more about Earth's current events and culture.) Darcy cleared out first, and though she tried to convince Erik to leave at the same time he seemed oblivious to her various hints and suggestions. Jane saw her to the door, and Darcy gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I tried."

Jane glanced over her shoulder towards the kitchen, where she could just barely hear Erik and Thor discussing something. "Maybe he just wanted to talk to Thor about something."

Darcy's eyes widened. "You don't think he's giving him a Talk, do you?"

Was he? He might be. If he was, Jane was going to kill him.

Something of her thought process must have shown on her face, because Darcy said, "I'm sure that's not what it is."

"It had better _not_ be."

"Well, then you better go and find out. See you tomorrow? Eight AM?"

"Eight AM-ish."

"Riiiiight," Darcy said, drawing out the reply and grinning knowingly, and Jane shut the door before she could do or say anything else. She made for the kitchen, armed with a 'you are not my dad and even if you were I'd tell you to stay the hell out of my sex life' speech which would peel the paint from the walls, only to draw up short in the hall when she noticed Erik wasn't speaking English.

She'd heard him use Norwegian on the phone plenty of times, so she recognized the cadence and accent. She puzzled over who he'd be calling at this hour, and then Thor said, "After a fashion. You are not using it, so much as recognizing it. That is the first step in learning any skill."

It took her a second to realize what was happening. She moved closer to the entry, listening carefully.

Erik said something; he sounded concerned, or maybe hopeful. Thor laughed in response.

"I doubt I would make a very good teacher, even if you were inclined to the same magic I am, and that is no guarantee." There was a pause. Thor continued, "I am quite certain your people will learn to wield it, given time. Your science already advances at a rapid pace."

Jane crept a little further down the hall and peered around the corner. Erik was folding his arms, and his brow was furrowed as he spoke. Thor was holding a book in one hand, and Jane saw the title was in Norwegian rather than English.

Thor said to Erik, "Just as not all of your scientists teach, so not all of us who use magic can teach others to do so. It is a skill in its own right, and one I am not sure I possess."

Jane was sure Erik's response was disappointment of some fashion. Thor smiled at him. "Hearing it is the first and most important step."

Erik sighed, and seemed ready to go on, then spotted Jane. "Ah, Jane. Thor was just explaining to me about how he can understand all of us. Quite fascinating."

Caught out, Jane stepped into the kitchen and tried to act like she'd been intending to the whole time. In an attempt to deflect the conversation off herself, she said, "Maybe you can get him to translate some of those papers you've been wanting to read." When she drew close enough to Thor, he took one of her hands in his free one and gave her a scrutinizing look. She raised her chin at him, and one corner of his mouth twitched in a smile.

If Erik noticed their silent exchange, he hid it well under his amazement at Jane's suggestion. "I hadn't thought of that," he said, and gave Thor an appraising look. "I wonder how the technical terms would translate, though."

"I would be happy to try, though the Allspeak is often uncertain in such cases."

"Well I've only been waiting two years for a proper translation, it would be better than the nothing I currently have." Jane was sure she saw his eyes flick to their joined hands. "I should get going. I've a lot of work to do still on that grant, and Søren invited me to dinner at his family's house tomorrow for his daughter's birthday."

They saw Erik out, and Jane made a mental note to check the faculty lounge for left-overs on Monday, because Søren was known for bringing them in after a party. Over a dessert of caramel tapioca pudding she and Thor experimented with what language magic could and couldn't do using papers from Russian and Chinese science journals as a benchmark, and she convinced him to write more for her in the Æsir language. They didn't get very far with that, however, because between having a day to adjust and their conversation the night before, Thor wasn't shy about making overtures of his own. They did, at least, make it out of the kitchen, for which Jane was eternally grateful. She didn't think she'd have been able to talk to her mother in there ever again without blushing if they hadn't.

In the morning there was a text waiting for her on her phone, from Richard.


	3. Chapter 3

"_Ugh_."

Darcy glanced over the edge of her laptop. "What?"

"Richard. I forgot, he called, and I think he asked me out to dinner, and I think I told him yes."

"You _think_ you told him yes?" Darcy's brow furrowed. "When was this?"

"When we were in that cave on Malekith's planet. Everything was going crazy and I wasn't paying a lot of attention to anything but keeping him from hanging up so we could find our way out."

Darcy gave her an incredulous look. "So you agreed to go out to dinner with Richard, with Thor standing right there?"

Jane bit her lip. That would certainly explain why, at the time, Thor had asked who Richard was. "Probably? Maybe."

For a moment Darcy's expression clearly broadcast 'this is the kind of thing that only happens to you, Jane', then she shrugged. "So just call him up and tell him dinner's off."

"He texted me."

"Even better; no voice communication."

"Yeah, but isn't that kind of rude?"

Darcy's exasperation became intense. "It's not your fault you were just thinking about moving on from the whole Thor thing only to have him drop out of space and back into your lap. Really, that's not something you have to apologize for. To anyone. Definitely not to a guy you had one aborted date with, no matter how cute he is."

All of that was true, and yet Jane found herself fidgeting. "But, I _did_ agree to another date."

"So un-agree. Really, you were in the textbook definition of a high stress situation at the time, don't be so hard on yourself."

"Isn't that kind of jerking him around?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "You don't actually intend to take him up on it, do you?" Jane shook her head. "Then, number one, have you looked at him? He'll have no trouble finding someone else to date. Number two, you do not owe him a single thing, so who cares what he thinks. It's none of his business why you're changing your mind."

All of that was true. Jane thought it over, typed out a quick response, hesitated for a moment, and finally hit the SEND button. "There."

"See how easy that was?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it was." She took a deep breath, let it out, and grabbed her coffee mug. "Coffee," she said, and fled the room.

* * *

Richard's response was a perfectly polite acquiescence, complete with smiley-face emoticon, and Jane had to admit that it helped to have one less interpersonal axe hanging over her head. Now if she ran into him in public, it wouldn't be a scene where she fell all over herself trying to explain things. It would be awkward, for sure, but awkward was par for the course with her. She made a mental note to thank Darcy by getting her a gift card for somewhere.

Of course, this didn't address the other issue—explaining the phone call in the cave to Thor—and she fretted over that on and off for another couple of days while Thor practiced writing, explained to her how various kinds of magic worked from his perspective, and slowly but surely acclimated to his surroundings and her. That alone almost made her balk at bringing it up; she didn't want to disturb his equilibrium just when he was finding it.

In the end, it was all her phone's fault. She got a call from her mom, thanking her again for watching the house while she was away, and if Jane found another place before she got back could she make sure to give a set of the keys to Gillian the neighbor, and yes, she was looking forward to meeting the nice young man Jane had emailed her all about.

Once the call was done she left her phone on the table with Thor and went back to making their after-dinner coffee.

"Your mother knows of me then," he said, sounding concerned. Jane nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, she's known since New Mexico." Thor didn't look one bit reassured by that, and Jane wondered if maybe it meant something different on Asgard to tell your parents you'd 'met someone'. She added, "I didn't tell her that you ran off, or anything, just that you were Incredibly Busy with something Really Important."

Thor relaxed. Maybe it did mean the same thing. "What do you wish for me to tell her about myself?"

Jane tried to think of something, then gave up and shook her head. "We've got a few months. We'll come up with an explanation that's not a total lie. I don't think she's ready for a talk about aliens." The kettle whistled, and while she finished up with the coffee Thor poked at her phone's interface. She sat down with their mugs (black for him, cream and sugar for her) and said, "Maybe we should get you one."

"Are they not costly?"

"They can be, but I've got a family plan—actually, Darcy and Erik and I are all on one, it really keeps expenses down. So we could add you and it wouldn't break the bank." She watched him turn it over in his hands. "I'm still amazed the cell signal made it into that cave."

As soon as she said it she felt like time had stopped. Thor was still examining the phone with interest, and outwardly showed no sign of any particular reaction.

"And fortunate," he said. "We might not have found our way back to Earth in enough time to stop Malekith otherwise."

"Yeah." She tapped the table, nervous, because there was no time like the present, and yet this was no better than an ambush.

_I've put this off long enough_, she thought, and steeled herself. "Hey, speaking of that. The call that I got. In the cave. From Richard—"

"Jane."

The tone of his voice stopped her dead in her tracks. She met his eyes, and he set the phone aside and took one of her hands in his. "You do not owe me any explanations. If you wish to tell me I will be glad to listen, but know that I do not expect it of you."

Jane stared at him. This wasn't how she'd expected the conversation to go, particularly since in that moment he'd asked, and she'd put him off. And it wasn't his business, not really, but she'd prepared a speech anyways, about moving on and how life (for her) was short and that after New York she'd figured he'd forgotten because he had important things to do and she was just this scientist he met once in New Mexico. And how that was okay, because was an intergalactic romance _really_ a good idea, and anyways it wasn't like they had any kind of understanding after she hit him with her van (twice) and he said he'd come back and then didn't. At the very least, she'd hoped to drown the conversation in a sheer application of words.

And now it turned out that after a week to gain some perspective, he didn't actually feel like it was his business if she didn't want it to be.

She was trying to work through how she felt, and maybe he took her silence as a need to continue, because he started talking again. "From your perspective I was gone for a very long time, and you had no way of knowing if I would ever return. It would be, unacceptable of me, to place expectations of any kind on you. I have not earned that right." He looked so serious it made her want to squirm. "The only thing I ask for is a chance to prove myself worthy of you."

Now this was _really_ not going where she'd thought it would. She couldn't help her sharp, half-hysterical laugh. "Well, we did, ah, save the universe together. I don't know how much more proof I need."

"That is not proof I would be good to you, only that I value life. I would hope that anyone else would have done the same had it been up to them and within their power."

She grimaced. "You'd be surprised."

Thor nodded, and said, "Regardless, you are deserving of a great deal more than only that. Perhaps more than I know how to give. But I would like to try."

So, there it was: her entire speech was useless. She'd spent hours working out what to say, too. On the other hand, this probably qualified as the whole 'so are we a thing now' talk, thus it wasn't a total loss.

But there was something else she wanted to clarify. "You told your mom and dad about me."

Thor seemed nonplussed by the new topic. "Of course." He looked down at their hands, looking amused for a moment. "If I had not they would have asked me soon enough."

"Asked you? Asked you wh—" She blinked. Did he seem embarrassed? He kind of did. "Asked you if—if you'd met someone?"

He started to say something, stopped, and settled on a rueful smile.

It _did_ mean the same thing.

Keeping a firm grip on his hand, she got up from the table and proceeded to haul him out of his chair and to her room.


	4. Chapter 4

By the second week they had settled into a routine. He and Jane would take a walk in the morning and talk over breakfast. After that he would jog or swim, wander London, read, work on his writing, or go with Ian and sometimes Darcy and help with whatever they might need while Jane and Erik (and occasionally Darcy) went to and from the college. In the evening, when Jane came home, he would help prepare dinner. Sometimes Erik or Darcy would join them, but often it was just the two of them, trading stories and learning about one another's cultures through the exchange, or watching TV, which amused and perplexed him at the same time and served as white noise while Jane went through data or journal articles.

Occasionally—mostly when the weather was acting up—he would go out onto the balcony and stare out over the city. He would be particularly taciturn just before and after these interludes, and the sense that he was grappling with something was overwhelming, leading Jane to wonder if she should just leave him be, or offer support, or what. One particularly nasty late afternoon she decided to just ask. If he said she should leave him alone, well, then she would.

His head turned a fraction when she stepped out into the wind and almost-rain, but he didn't say anything, and his eyes remained focused on some distant point. Water had collected in his beard and hair, and beaded on his water-resistant windbreaker.

Eventually, Jane worked up the nerve to say, "This isn't you, right?"

He shook his head. Jane gripped her jacket around her as a particularly strong gust sharpened the damp cold. She worked up the nerve to go on, but before she could, he said, "When the weather is like this, it pulls at me." He seemed to think very carefully about what he was going to say next. "And, with my mother and brother's deaths, it has been harder to manage than usual." He shut his eyes briefly. "It is difficult to live so long with someone in your life, and then have them be gone."

Jane swallowed. "Yeah. My dad, he ah...I mean, I wasn't real young, but it was early." She cleared her throat. "There was this big hole in my life, and I didn't know how to fill it."

Absently, Thor said, "Or if it should even be filled."

She nodded and focused on her boots. "Yeah. And I mean, I learned how to handle it eventually. I had my mom, and Erik, and my friends. But it was pretty hard. It was _really_ hard. So I mean, if you do or _don't_ want to talk to me about it, just...let me know."

She started when she felt his hand along her back (he could move quickly and quietly when he wanted to, she was beginning to realize), but the surprise was overridden by the instinct to lean into him. He slid his other arm around her, and they stayed like that for some time.

Eventually she said, "When you say the weather pulls at you, what do you mean?"

He raised his head. "I feel storms more strongly than other weather. But that is just my nature." She peered at him, and he said, "I am more inclined to them, as you are to your type of science."

"So they're your specialty?"

"Yes."

"But you can feel all weather?"

"To some extent."

The heavy drizzle turned into actual rain, and before Jane could suggest they go inside, it stopped falling on them. Several feet above them was a sharp point where the drops veered away, not like they'd met resistance—they didn't run or smear or splatter—but as though they'd been gently drawn aside. The base of the effected area had a roughly circular shape and encompassed almost the whole yard.

Jane glanced up at Thor, and found his solemn bearing from before had given way to a sort of composed calm. She pulled free of his embrace walked to the edge of the effect while he watched, and reached into the rain, letting it fall on her fingers. "Is this easy to do?"

"Turning the rain aside is a minor effort."

"Super handy, though." She walked back to him and took one of his hands. Tipping her head towards the house, she said, "Want some tea? Coffee? Erik's coming over to help more with the grants."

He agreed and followed her inside. As soon as he passed over the threshold the deluge hit the yard full force, and Jane amended 'super handy' to 'amazingly useful'.

They'd just settled down on the couch when Erik arrived. He had with him a few of the journal articles he'd kept saying he would bring over, on a jump drive as well as printed out.

"Jane said you're working on learning to write in English. I thought if you wanted to practice, you could try making notes on these for me, instead of just the dictations."

Thor accepted the stapled packets and flipped through them. Erik watched him with intense interest, and said, "So does the Allspeak not work for writing?"

"It does, though it is a different use of it, and a more advanced one."

Jane set her laptop aside, because even though she'd had this conversation with Thor already, she'd been anticipating having it again with Erik present. Erik glanced at Jane, then asked Thor, "And you're not particularly good with that kind of magic?"

"No. The magic of the mind has never been my forte." His expression faltered, and he took a sip from his tea. "Loki and my mother were much more skilled at it."

Erik ran a hand through his hair. "I ah, see. So there's not just one kind of magic?"

Jane thought Thor looked grateful for the subject change. He shook his head. "Magic has a great many aspects, the same way your science does. You name those who work with the science of life 'biologists', and you are 'astrophysicists'. So it is with magic—we are not all skilled in every manner of it, and often, we are only very skilled in one or two."

"And what are you skilled in?"

"The forces which drive nature."

Erik frowned. "What, energy?"

"That would be a way to describe them, yes."

Now that they were in new territory, Jane said, "But not the only way. I mean, you can't..." She looked around the room, then pointed at the TV, "You can't turn that on just by thinking about it, right?"

Thor shook his head, and held up his mug so the blank side of it faced them. "We are taught that magic is like a finely-cut gem. You can view it from a thousand angles and see it a thousand ways," he turned the mug so the logo—Oxford University—was visible, "and none of them are wrong. They are just different."

Jane sat back on the couch, chewing that over, and Erik asked, "What's it like?"

Thor was some time in responding. "Have you ever stood in a river, or a sea, and felt the water's movement? The large motion of the current, and the smaller motion of individual waves?"

Erik and Jane exchanged a look. Jane said, "I think I know what you're getting at," and Thor set the mug down.

"These are not things you can grasp or hold," he closed and opened his hand, "but you can direct them, and shape them." He made a motion like he was pushing something away. "If you place a breakwater, it shapes the flow of the sea and deflects the waves from a harbor. If you dam a river, the water forms into a lake, changing the landscape. The forces of a moon cause tides. I direct weather in much the same way."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Even when you're just not letting it rain on you?"

"Yes. Most magic—great or small—is, at its core, the same thing. The real difference is in how you make use of it, and how you combine the different types together."

Erik rubbed his chin and gazed out over the room. "So even though you are working with energy, you're working with it in a specific way."

"Sort of like how we have different fuels for different engines," Jane said, and Erik snapped his fingers.

"Ah, yes, excellent example. The principles are similar, but the specifics are not entirely interchangeable, or not without drastically different outcomes."

Thor smiled at both of them, looking happy (or maybe it was relieved) at their understanding. Erik said, "Well, now that that's sorted—how about we order some take-out? I'm starving, and if we're going to get these grants done before this weekend we have a long night ahead of us."

* * *

That night, as they lay in bed, Jane found herself staring at Mjölnir where it sat on top of the window-side table. The full moon's cloud-hazed light bled into the street lamps and left everything but the hammer a mix of broad, soft, black to dark gray shapes edged in random shapes of watery yellow and white. In contrast, Mjölnir's outline was sharp and precise, and the glint of the metal coiling the handle caught her attention.

"What's it made of?"

Thor had been half-asleep, and was a moment in rousing himself. He shifted and made an inquiring sound.

"Mjölnir." Jane was finding it easier to say, though she was sure she was still getting it wrong. "What kind of metal is it made of?"

One of his hands absently stroked her hip, and his breath was warm on her neck as he spoke. "A metal made from the remains of a star's heart."

"A star's heart?"

He murmured a confirmation. She wondered if that was his entire response, and he was just too far gone to sleep for a conversation, but then he continued. "It is not a metal that forms naturally in time. Master Smiths make it as it is needed, and have perfected the technique, so that it is the finest metal possible for its given purpose."

Jane tried to translate Thor's explanation into human terminology. "They make the metal from—" She started as a possibility came to mind. "From sub-atomic matter? That they pull out of a neutron star?"

"Yes, I think that is what you call them."

"Where—how do they do that?"

"At a Stellar Forge. There are a handful of them scattered throughout the branch of Yggdrasil where Asgard lies."

"Stellar Forge?" She tried to imagine such a thing in her mind. Was it built around the star, like some sort of Dyson sphere? Or was it a single, orbiting body, maybe some kind of space station?

"I think from your perspective they would be both a mine and a forge. The dwarves harvest material from the star's core, and use it to fashion whatever matter they need, and from that they make what has been requested of them."

Jane levered herself up on on one arm and half-turned so she could look down at him, and he rolled onto his back and looked up at her. "So they have a way to pull matter out of neutron stars?" He nodded. "Is that how you make everything?"

He shook his head. "Not everything. But raw materials, great vessels, or special items. The mechanisms within the Observatory that form the Bifröst, or a focus such as Mjölnir."

"Nothing biological?"

"No, though living constructs can be made this way."

"You mean robots?"

He considered the word. "That is what you would call some of them. Others are not merely automatons; they are ships, or defensive systems, and other such things."

Jane stared at him. It was hard, sometimes, to really internalize the fact that he was an _alien_; that he had already lived for well over a thousand years, and had thousands more ahead of him; that he had done things like visit other planets and ride ships across supernova remnants and grown up on what amounted to a constructed world. She would think she'd really taken ownership of it, and become comfortable with that knowledge and its broader meaning. Then they'd talk about something like this, and the fact that he encapsulated so many things she'd only ever hoped to scratch the surface of would rear up in her mind like a tidal wave, and she'd wonder what she was getting herself into.

"Jane?"

She blinked, and the nervous fear that had been about to swamp her receded. He looked like he sounded—concerned—and she shook her head.

"Sorry, just—sometimes I wonder if I'm dreaming all of this."

"All of what?"

She laid on her back. "Sitting here in bed with an alien, talking how you harvest matter from neutron stars like we cut down trees for lumber, or," she waved an arm, "mix cement."

"And this is the sort of thing you dream of?" He sounded amused.

"Maybe not the 'talking to an alien' part," she said, and thought of the strange and impossible hammer sitting quiescent and quite solid and real on the table. "But civilizations living in space like it was their backyard, rather than some big, dark ocean we can't ever hope to cross? It's part of what drove me to focus on spacetime singularities. I want _us_ out there, doing that." She sighed, feeling calmer the more she thought about it. "At least I know it's possible now. I'm not just chasing crazy theories. It makes the bullshit easier to deal with." She turned her head towards him. "So, thanks for that. Even if I have to take a step back every now and then and remind myself that you're a real live E.T."

Thor took one of her hands and kissed the back of it. "You are welcome. I am only sorry it is not proof you may put to immediate use as evidence to convince your peers."

"It's okay." She yawned and rolled onto her side, and Thor settled flush against her again. "I've got all the data from Greenwich for that."


	5. Chapter 5

Weeks turned into months faster than Jane expected, but that always happened to her when she had a lot of work on her plate. She and Darcy and Erik applied for so many grants Jane began to have trouble telling them apart. One of the modest ones was funded, which took some of the load off her mind regarding money, and made Darcy squeal with delight at the promise of an actual paycheck (even a very meager one). Dr. Ramachandran set aside time on her computing cluster for Jane to crunch numbers, and the two of them had a regular weekly meeting to go over what they would put in an initial paper.

Thor's orbit of her life was, in its own way, comforting for its eccentricity. He would take odd jobs that paid off the books when he stumbled across them; mostly manual labor, one-time deals that left both employers and co-workers confused at his ability to understand all of them no matter the language they spoke. He gave the money to Jane, and she in turn gave it to Erik and Darcy, since they helped her out with Thor a great deal. He explored London thoroughly, and then ranged out further using Mjölnir, though he was never gone without telling her where he would be or how soon he would come back.

She began to wonder if she had finally found some new waterline for normalcy—granted, a normalcy which involved detailed datasets outlining the nature of gravitational anomalies and an alien learning to write Latin script in between extended discussions on magic—and then the calls started.

* * *

Jane groaned as her phone buzzed again. "How do I block a phone number?"

Without bothering to look up from her laptop, Darcy said, "Who could possibly be calling you enough to warrant being blocked."

"I don't know, it's some number in New York. The only time I answered they asked if they could put me on hold and get someone, and I hung up. The last thing I need is some kind of marketing spiel."

Darcy frowned. "Read me the number?"

Jane did, then set her phone aside and went back to her tables. A second later Darcy had grabbed Jane's phone off her desk.

"Hey!"

"You didn't mix up a digit, did you?"

"No—what are you doing?"

"Jane, this is—" Darcy waved her phone at her, "This is the number for Stark Industries corporate headquarters."

Jane took her phone back and stared at the number. "What?"

"You've been hanging up on someone from Stark Industries."

"Why would they be calling me?"

"Well Tony Stark is Iron Man, right? Maybe he's looking for Thor."

"How would he know to talk to me?"

"You're one of the only people with data about Greenwich, and the college blog just ran that article on you and Dr. Ramachandran."

Jane gripped her hair. It hadn't occurred to her that the article could serve as a beacon to Thor for anyone trying to find him. "Damn it." She set down her phone and tried to focus on her laptop. "Well, next time I'll answer and tell them to leave him alone."

"Thus confirming you know where he is."

"They already know that. What _else_ am I going to say?"

Darcy shrugged. "Ask what they want. Maybe it's something important."

Jane's phone buzzed again. Darcy picked it up and offered to her, and Jane grit her teeth and took it. She set it on speaker phone when she answered, because she'd be damned if she was dealing with whatever this was alone.

"This is Jane."

"Dr. Jane Foster?" the same professional, clipped, male voice as the last ten calls said.

"Yes."

"Could you please hold?"

Jane looked Darcy square in the eye and said, "Sure."

Darcy gave her a thumbs up. They waited a couple of minutes, then another line cut in, and she heard a man say, "—finally got her to answer her phone, okay? And like, maybe you could—oh. Hey, is this Dr. Foster?"

"This is."

"Do you mind if we video conference this?"

"Actually, I—"

"What's your email? No, wait, I have it, it was in the article, hang on." A handful of seconds later Jane's browser pinged, and there was an invite for a video conference sitting in her inbox.

From Tony Stark.

"You've got a camera on your computer, right?"

"I do, but—"

Darcy's eyes widened. She gestured at the message, and Jane stifled a sigh and clicked on the link in the email. A browser window opened, the video feed loaded, and there was the one and only Tony Stark, live and in person, in what appeared to be some sort of hardware lab. In the background a rumpled man with salt and pepper hair and reading glasses glanced up from a tablet, then went back to it. He was sitting at a desk strewn with equipment.

The phone call clicked off, leaving just the video conference. Stark stepped back and pointed at her. "You're a hard woman to reach, Dr. Foster." His eyes shifted. "And who's this?"

"Darcy Lewis," Darcy said with a wave. "Lab manager."

"I see. Is Ms. Lewis privy to your comings and goings?"

"She takes care of the administrative work and makes sure I eat." Darcy nudged her, and she added, "And helps me with my equipment."

Tony studied Darcy, and finally said, "Okay, she can stay."

"Thanks," Darcy muttered. Jane rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Mr. Stark, I know why you've been contacting me, and I really don't—"

"Wait, really? Did that leak _already_?" He turned to the man at the desk. "Did you talk to the press?"

Jane blinked, taken aback. "Leak?"

"Me, talk to the press," the other man said, his focus still on the tablet. "That's _hysterical_."

"Well _someone_ did." Stark's eyes went wide. "I _told_ her that new guy was a security leak, I could _smell_ it on him—"

Jane tried to reign in her exasperation. "Mr. Stark." Stark stopped his tirade and looked back at her, and she said, "I think we're not talking about the same thing. Why _have_ you been trying to get hold of me?"

He sobered and approached the screen again. "I'm sure you know about NSF and ESA's new funding in response to an alien spaceship crashing into London."

Jane thought of the grant proposals they'd spent the last week putting together. "A little."

"Weeeeeeell, we—by we I mean, Stark Industries R&D, which is myself and Dr. Banner here," he pointed to himself and the other man, who raised his hand in a wordless greeting, "and a few thousand other brilliant people—managed to land a contract to make deep space probes. One purely interstellar, plus two for Neptune and Uranus."

Jane leaned forward. "Interstellar?"

"That's right." Stark had that infuriating look someone got when they knew they had your undivided attention and planned to revel in it, but Jane found she couldn't care about being transparent. "Partnering with SpaceX to launch them on a Falcon."

"What's your target for having them out past the heliopause?"

"Ten years from launch."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "How."

"We have some ideas. SpaceX has some. Might have more with you around."

She shook her head. "Propulsion's not my area of expertise."

"No, but instrumentation like radio and electron telescopes _are_, and if we have someone like you on that, we can put other people on things like how to get them out of our solar system in a reasonable timeframe."

Jane tapped her desk. Interstellar probes. But... "Would I be able to take breaks to work on other projects?"

"Depends on what kind."

"I have time scheduled to go to ALMA." She weighed the pros and cons as quickly as she could, then said, "And I have all this data from Greenwich."

It was Jane's turn to bask in undivided attention, both Stark's and Banner's. Banner set his tablet down and approached the screen, traded a long look with Stark, and asked, "How much coverage?"

"We had sensors over most of the campus for the entire event."

Stark regained his composure. "Sounds like a lot of data to crunch," he said.

"It is."

"Sounds like you could use a big computing cluster for that."

"A colleague's letting me use some of hers."

Banner said, "They've got a pretty nice one here," and Stark added, "It's state of the art if I do say so myself," with fake modesty.

Jane shook her head. "This data's not going private."

Stark held out a hand, expression conciliatory in the extreme. "Wouldn't need to. Just a little shout-out in the thank you sections of any papers you might publish. Maybe a sentence or two on how awesome and brilliant I—" Banner gave him a Look, "—we, are here."

Jane glanced at Darcy, who nodded with wide eyes, and she said, "Send me a proposal?"

"It'll be in your inbox tomorrow."

"I'll keep an eye out for it."

"Excellent." Stark seemed to be reaching to close his end of the connection, then stopped. "Hey, Foster, one more thing." Jane raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to know where Thor is, would you?"

Jane gave the two men a saccharine smile and closed her browser window.

* * *

The proposal was generous in the extreme, and she, Darcy, and Erik took a week to think it over before deciding. During that time she discussed it with Thor, and he seemed amenable to the arrangement so long as Jane wanted to. His easy agreement seemed odd to her, and after some prying she managed to get an admission that he wouldn't mind visiting another city in a long-term capacity. He was used to roaming all over a Realm when he visited it, and right now he had no real way to go on long-term trips, nor was he about to impose on them for additional resources to do so.

She and Darcy set up a conference call with Stark and Banner to go over the particulars. Stark kept asking about Thor while Banner watched intently, and they kept not answering.

One of the best parts of the deal was an apartment in Stark Tower proper, if Jane wanted it. There was a floor set aside for visiting personnel, and given New York rental rates and their needs, Jane planned to take Stark up on that one. She also thought the tower on the whole would make for a better place for Thor to spend his time. (Despite the delicate ballet of not admitting Thor would be coming with her or was even around, the proposal listed Jane's optional apartment as being a 2-person unit.)

The overall plan left her with three months to work with Dr. Ramachandran on an initial paper and still move out before her mom came back, thus evading the awkward situation of having Thor and her mother under the same roof. She would even get to put off explaining Thor in any great detail. The fact that things were coming together so well had to be why, six weeks into this three month grace period, SHIELD imploded in a truly jaw-dropping fashion.

* * *

She and Thor were sitting on the couch, him with his tablet and writing program, her with a first stab at a paper, when her phone rang. Darcy often called in the evening for any number of reasons, so Jane answered without checking the number.

"Hello?"

"Foster." There was a sound like some kind of engine in the background. "Is Thor there?"

Jane tried to place the voice. The number didn't have an ID associated with it, but that wasn't a surprise. "Who is this?"

"It's Stark. I need to talk to Thor. And you need to turn on your TV."

Jane paused. She'd never confirmed to Stark that Thor was around despite his numerous and on-going inquiries, and yet there was an urgent note in his voice that said whatever he was calling about was serious.

"Why?"

"If you turn it on to anything not the History channel the answer will be self-evident."

Jane thought of New York and felt her stomach go cold. Thor was watching her, frowning, and she offered him the phone.

"It's Tony Stark. He says he needs to talk to you."

Thor's features eased a fraction, and he set aside the tablet for the phone while Jane took up the remote and flipped the TV on. She heard Thor say, "Stark?" but stopped paying attention after that. On the screen was a concerned and confused reporter, and next to her in a video inset was a trio of flying aircraft carriers hovering over what a caption insisted was Washington, D.C., firing at one another with total abandon.

"Thor," she said, and he turned to the TV.

"I see them, though it would take me some time to reach you," he said, and it took her a second to realize he was talking to Stark. A lengthy pause, then, "They may not wish to, but I will ask. Do you think the danger extends only to them?" Stark said something Jane almost heard, and Thor replied, "We will contact you." He hung up (it took him a second to find the right button) and handed her phone back. "Stark says that SHIELD has been betrayed."

"Betrayed? By who?"

"He named them HYDRA. He says they have been working among SHIELD for some time, and he is concerned they might come for you and Erik. He has offered to send a vessel to bring the both of you to New York now, rather than wait for your work with them to begin, if you wish."

Jane sat back. SHIELD was actually not SHIELD, or not only SHIELD, and she and Erik might be in danger, and there were flying aircraft carriers on the TV blowing one another up. "Wow. Okay." She gave herself a minute to digest the insanity and Stark's offer of safety. "What about Darcy and Ian? Or my mom?"

"Darcy and Ian may join you later. He does not think they or your mother are in the same immediate danger."

"And you?"

"I will go where you do."

Jane ran her hands over her face. One of the carriers was slowly falling into a large, white and gray building. Thor took her hands in his. "We do not have to go. I can protect you and Erik here, if you would rather stay."

Jane winced and shook her head. "You shouldn't have to do that."

"Should I not? I am a defender of the Realms. Protecting you and Erik is an honor for me."

It had occurred to her more than once that, ultimately, Thor had been raised and trained for a particular purpose more than anything else, and the last few months had might have been the longest he'd ever gone without performing that duty in some capacity. He was adjusting well, all things considered, but at the back of Jane's mind was the worry that it couldn't last; that sooner or later he would want, maybe even _need_, to do what he did best. And so she couldn't be surprised that he wasn't the least bit put out at the prospect of defending Erik and her and Ian and Darcy from anyone who might be stupid enough to come knocking.

The remains of the other two carriers were smoldering ruins in the river, and a haze of thick, gray and black smoke drifted out of what was left of the building.

She wasn't sure she liked the idea of running to Stark Tower for cover, but she also didn't have any better ideas. Staying in her mom's house was out of the question, for certain. She wouldn't draw HYDRA-SHIELD-whatever here.

"Okay. We'll go to New York. I need to call my mom, shit what time is it in Kyoto right now? I need to call mom, and Erik, and Stark—"

Thor released her hands rubbed her back, and between the warmth of his hand and the movement it eased the not in her stomach. "I will contact Erik," he said. "And Stark as well, if that will help."

The third carrier had torn free of the building and fallen somewhere off-camera. The reporter was saying something about Captain America.

Jane took a steadying breath. "Yeah. Okay."


	6. Chapter 6

The following day was extraordinarily long, and made longer still by an intense unease Jane had been unable to shake since watching the news coverage the previous night. It took her a few hours to identify what lay at the core of her anxiety: it felt so much like New York, and Thor had left without seeing her after New York.

She was done with hand-wringing, though, and would be damned if that was happening again. When she told him about it, he assured her no such thing would occur, and helped her focus on specific tasks, like packing the basics, working out what Darcy would need to handle in London, and concocting a story for her mom. The activity bled off some of the stress, so that by the time they were in the air on Stark's private jet she was able to doze on and off. Stark sent the company's head of personal security—a friendly, stocky man who introduced himself as Happy—to escort them, and once Thor warmed up to him they traded stories throughout the flight. Thor's tireless vigilance was comforting, even if it also meant he was subjecting anyone who came within fifty feet of her to an intense scrutiny that often turned them away.

They landed in the late afternoon, and a helicopter flew them from LaGuardia to the Tower. Stark was there to greet them on the helipad; he shook hands with Jane first. "Dr. Foster. So good to finally meet you in person. A shame the circumstances can't be less catastrophic."

Despite how matter-of-fact and light-hearted he sounded, the word catastrophic made her stomach clench. "How bad is it?"

"Very. But we'll get to that." He moved on to Erik. "Dr. Selvig."

Jane couldn't miss the resignation in Erik's expression as he shook hands with Stark. "Mr. Stark."

Tony smiled and turned to Thor. "Thor."

"Stark." Thor's greeting had a distinct undertone of caution, which Tony probably decided to ignore. They shook hands, and Stark leaned in and peered at Thor's arm. "Did you get bigger?" Thor seemed unsure how to answer, but before he could, Stark released him and gave his outfit a once-over. "Congratulations on looking almost normal."

"That is Jane and Erik and Darcy's work."

"Well they did a spectacular job. I almost can't tell you're a weather-controlling alien."

"Thank you," Thor said in a way which implied he wasn't actually sure he was thankful at all, but knew it was the expected response.

Tony turned and lead them into the Tower penthouse, saying, "Of course you already know Banner." Banner, who was sitting at a breakfast bar reading from a tablet, glanced up, waved a hello, and pulled off his glasses. He and Thor exchanged nods.

A tall woman in a smart, dark gray business suit with a crisp white shirt came around from the other side of the bar. "And I'm Pepper." She offered her hand first to Jane—her handshake was firm and friendly—next Erik, and then Thor, who did that courtly half-bow thing he seemed to reserve for special occasions. Jane saw Stark's jaw set as Pepper laughed.

"I am honored by your invitation, Virginia Potts," Thor said.

Pepper cast Jane an amused look and told Thor, "Please, it's just Pepper. And I'm glad you accepted, even here at Stark Industries we don't get a lot of visitors from other worlds."

Thor withdrew his hand. "The pleasure is mine," he said. "I hope my presence will not be an inconvenience to you."

Jane suspected they were witnessing some sort of Asgardian social code, and wondered what the reason was; she'd never seen Thor behave quite this formally with anyone.

Regardless, Pepper took it in stride. "I sincerely doubt that," she assured him. Thor nodded and seemed about to say more, but Tony sidled up next to Pepper.

"Okay, okay, enough of the whole court rituals thing you two," he said, and squinted at Thor, which Thor met with a small, almost devious smile. Pepper rolled her eyes and made her way over to the bar, gesturing towards the kitchen as she went.

"We keep the kitchen stocked, but of course you're welcome to bring in anything you want, just make sure to label it. The coffee shop across the street gets their pastries from a _very_ good bakery, I recommend them if that's your thing. I've got your IDs right here." She offered them keycards with the photos Jane had sent; they were encased in thick, hard, plastic shells and attached to lanyards. "I'll have one for Ms. Lewis when she arrives."

"Thank you so much Ms. P—ah, Pepper," Jane said.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you. We'll be sending up much better equipment than we would have without you."

Jane shook herself out. "Speaking of which. Can we get a tour of the labs?"

Tony held a hand towards the elevator. "Certainly."

* * *

Happy showed them to their apartments after Tony had whisked them around on their grand tour. Jane was itching to get to work in the lab, but schooled herself to patience. It could wait until tomorrow morning, and anyways, she was starving, Erik was exhausted, and it was already five o'clock.

The apartment had definitely been designed for visiting personnel rather than long-term living, though it wasn't so small as to be cramped. (She doubted she'd spend much time in it, and if Thor's interest in London was any indication then New York would keep him plenty occupied as well.) The galley kitchen wouldn't really hold more than one person at a time, and it felt odd to live, however temporarily, somewhere that wasn't lined with bookshelves.

She came out from the bathroom to find Thor staring out the large window in the living room that looked over the city. Lights were coming on in fits and starts as twilight fell, and he watched with a pensive expression.

She moved to stand next to him, slipping an arm around his waist and asking, "Think this will be okay?"

He wrapped an arm around her. "I believe so." He raised an eyebrow. "Will it be for you?" She tipped her head and he said, "I know it was not only your science that drew you here."

Jane laid her head against him. "I won't lie and say the part where it'd be crazy of HYDRA to come sniffing around here and all the digits after the dollar sign in my compensation weren't factors." She shrugged. "But we'd have figured something else out even without this. The fact that it was Stark just made it easier."

"Oh?"

"He can't stand SHIELD any more than I can."

Thor huffed a small laugh. Then, "As long as it was a choice you made for yourself."

Jane poked him in the ribs. "Choices I make based on you can still be choices for myself. I just have to be sure my personal needs still get met. That's Relationships 101." He nodded, and she said, "What about you? What would _you_ choose for yourself?"

He glanced aside, like he was thinking about something he wasn't likely to share, and said, "I have already chosen it."

"Yeah?"

He looked down at her and ran a hand over her hair. "Yes."

Jane felt her face grow warm. "Okay." Her stomach twinged, and she said, "Does it involve what's for dinner? Because I'm starving."

He grinned and turned them around towards the door. "It was not that specific of a decision, though it can now be. Is there something you would like to eat?"

"There's a pho place Tony swears by. That's noodles in broth, with meat if you want, and herbs and other things."

"This sounds like something I would like to try."

"Good. And after that, we can start the best part of a move." Thor raised his eyebrows. "Unpacking," she clarified, and he laughed.

* * *

Later, when they were full of pho and liberal amounts of Sriracha and basil and had started the process of organizing their new home, Jane asked, "What was that whole thing with Pepper?"

Thor gave her a confused look in between examining book covers. He had taken her insistence they be put on the shelves in the correct order very seriously. "What do you mean?"

"It looked like you were being super formal with her."

Thor's expression cleared. "Is she not the head of this house of business?"

Jane shoved the last of her clothes into the dresser drawer and forced it shut. She could deal with properly folding things tomorrow. She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, she's the CEO."

"And Stark's offer came to you with her approval."

Jane nodded, watching Thor as he placed the books. The letters had all been under Pepper's signature first and Stark's second, and Thor had wanted to read them, which at the time Jane had put down to simple curiosity.

"But the offer was for you to do work, not for me. I was invited as a courtesy to you. It would have been rude to fail to thank her, and to not acknowledge the gesture."

Jane blinked. "Do you actually think they wouldn't have let me bring you?"

"It certainly would have been their right. It is your skills they sought, not mine, and it is no small effort for them to accommodate me." He sounded not the least bit put out by this.

"Are you kidding? It's a _minuscule_ effort. You might eat a lot but I promise you, this company spends way more money on worse things than it could ever spend on feeding you."

"It is theirs to spend as they wish. And even if it is no great effort, that does not absolve me of the need to thank Pepper for her generosity." Thor sat back on his heels and left off the books. "It is prudent to be respectful to the head of an allied household."

Jane felt like this was a cultural gap she might never really understand, but then again, she hadn't been raised with the political destiny that he had. She moved down off the bed and onto the floor next to him, and he slid an arm round her waist and pulled her close as soon as she was in reach.

"Look, just because you're not inheriting the throne of Asgard anymore doesn't mean you're some piece of luggage I brought with me, okay?"

He smiled, looking far too pleased with himself for his own good. "Indeed, I should hope I am more useful than your luggage. For example, unlike this box, I can place your books back upon their shelves." He leaned in to kiss her, and Jane made him stop by putting a hand on his chest.

"I'm serious. There's a lot of things you could be doing. You don't have to follow me around. Or anything."

Thor sobered and watched her for a long handful of seconds, then took one of her hands and kissed the palm. She squirmed as his beard grazed her wrist. "And what if that is what I wish to do?"

"Follow me around?"

"Be where you are. It is true, there are things I may do—and so long as they allow me to return to you and be near you, then I will do them." He turned her hand and kissed the knuckles. "And while I am a guest in Pepper's house of business, I will behave in a manner which will not embarrass you nor jeopardize your work and presence here."

Jane set her forehead against his. She worried about this sort of thing all the time; that he would, contrary to everything he'd just said, become bored with her and wander off. Really, considering the scope of his life until now, it was hard for her to believe he could be in any way satisfied with the decidedly mundane nature of his current situation on Earth. And every time it came up he always insisted that he wasn't unhappy, or longing for a more meaningful existence than that of an astrophysicist's alien boyfriend, so maybe it was time to stop second guessing the good things in her life. Or at least him.

"What a relief," she said. "Here I was thinking I might have to lock you in the apartment any time I'm at work so you won't get into trouble."

"There are those who might still advise you to take such precautions." He nibbled at one of her fingers and asked in a low voice, "Are we done unpacking for now?"

"Oh yeah," Jane said. "Definitely."

* * *

They barely had reasonable sleep schedules under normal circumstances, and a six hour time delay did nothing to improve that, so rather than trying to sleep Thor went to check out Tony's training facilities and Jane made her way to the roof. She was unsurprised to find Erik already there. A handful of sturdy, metal lawn chairs in some dark color—it was hard to tell what with how the roof lights mixed haphazardly in the glow of the city—were scattered about in what she imagined were prime viewing locations for various sights.

"I figured you'd come out here sooner or later," he said as she approached, and gestured at a chair next to the one he'd taken. Jane settled in and tipped her head back to gaze overhead. Almost nothing was visible, though Jane hadn't expected it to be any improvement over London.

Still, Erik pointed and said, "Ursa Minor would be right about there."

Jane traced a shallow arc from the tip of his finger. "And Cassiopeia here."

Erik made a low sound of agreement. "I'm looking forward to Atacama. All that time in London, and now here—no sky, just a this sort of, ceiling."

"That's not for three months. I'm not waiting that long." He tilted his head at her, and she said, "I figure we can rent a car and drive out of the city somewhere. Shouldn't have to go too far."

"No, I suppose not."

They sat in silence for some time. Jane said, "Is this what our lives are going to be like now?"

Erik looked askance at her. "How do you mean?"

She waved a hand at the building beneath them. "Working with Stark on whatever craziness he manages to get his hands on, trying to dodge SHIELD or HYDRA or whoever they are, helping prevent the world or the galaxy or the universe from being obliterated—is this it? Are we ever going back to normal?"

"Were you expecting normal when you decided to focus on wormholes and singularities?"

Jane made a face. "Well, I wasn't expecting any of _this_."

"I don't think they did either. Not even Thor—though maybe it was only the total destruction of the universe that was a new thing for him."

"Probably not even that," she muttered, and Erik laughed.

"Perhaps not." He took in a long breath and let it out slowly. "Would you rather none of this, though? Without it, you'd have far less personal evidence for your theories. To say nothing of never meeting Thor."

She fidgeted with the hem of her sweater. She'd asked herself that several times over the last two years: would she rather have never met Thor, and be back more or less where she'd been in New Mexico, but minus all the insanity of SHIELD and the Convergence and the Aether? Yet no matter how she asked it to herself, the answer was always the same.

"I know. And, no, I wouldn't trade any of that or him to go back to what it was like. It's just—" She swallowed, remembering the sight of the burning helicarriers on the TV. "It's a lot to take in."

"So it is."

Erik was giving her a sympathetic look, and she was reminded of what the Tesseract had done to him. Thus far, she'd been mercifully lacking in symptoms or signs of any side-effects from the Aether itself, but he and Thor and Darcy were ever watchful. No, it was this local shake-up that had her nervous, this revelation that the shady organization she'd never trusted was much worse and far more powerful and widespread than she'd ever imagined. In a world already hostile to billions of people for a whole host of other, ugly reasons it seemed unfair that now there was this, too.

She took to watching the planes in the landing pattern. Presently, Erik said, "It could be worse."

"I'm almost afraid to ask how."

"We could be sitting around writing more grant proposals."

It was true that they weren't going to lack for work in the foreseeable future, and work had always helped her deal with the upheavals of her life. Better yet, some of it was work which didn't involve tiptoeing around things like what had really happened in Greenwich and New Mexico, and her alien boyfriend for whom magic and technology were the same thing.

For a moment she thought she saw a star or planet winking through the city's glow and haze. It came and went so fast she had no idea if she'd imagined it, but decided it too was something she shouldn't second guess.

She said, "This is, without a doubt, a lot better than writing grant proposals."


End file.
